No. 2 Pitt Heads West For Showdowns With No. 24 BYU, Utah

PITTSBURGH - The Pitt volleyball team climbed to No. 2 in the first regular season poll by the AVCA (up from No. 4 preseason) following a 4-0 start to the 2026 season. The Panthers have defeated three teams ranked in the preseason top 15 already and will face another one this weekend in No. 24 BYU. Utah was an NCAA Tournament team a year ago and will provide a strong test as well.

Pitt has a tricky two weeks ahead and will come out on the other side battle-tested. Pitt will play three matches on this road trip, traveling from Utah to Orlando to face No. 22 Tennessee in the Shriners Children's Showdown at the Net at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Following the seven-day road trip, Pitt will return home to host the Panther Challenge less than 48 hours later with Jacksonville, High Point and Wright State visiting Pittsburgh.

SCOUTING BYU

BYU was ranked No. 24 in the AVCA Preseason Poll and remained in that spot after defeating Florida State in five sets and FGCU in four sets at the FGCU Invitational over the weekend. BYU will host Eastern Illinois Thursday evening before the matchup with Pitt on Friday.
In the Big 12 preseason poll, BYU was picked to finish seventh, with setter Alex Bower, outside hitter Claire Little Chambers and middle blocker Brielle Kemavor representing on the Big 12 Preseason Team.
In the early going, BYU has been formidable at the net, averagin 2.61 blocks per set. The Cougars are also hitting .269, which ranks No. 61 nationally. Individually, Elli Mortensen is 20th nationally at 0.83 aces per set and Kelli Jo Burgess is No. 23 in the country in blocks at 1.78 per set.
Head Coach Rob Neilson is in his first year at BYU after going 112-59 in six seasons at Utah State. Most notably, Utah State went to three NCAA Tournaments under his leadership, going 24-8 (18-0 Mountain West) a year ago and advanced to the second round.

SCOUTING UTAH

Utah opened the season with three consecutive sweeps, defeating Utah Valley, Utah Tech and Oregon State without dropping a set. The Utes will play Wyoming on Friday and Long Beach State on Saturday before playing Pitt Sunday as part of the Utah Classic.
Utah was picked right behind BYU in eighth in the Big 12 preseason poll. Outside hitter Kamryn Gibadlo was named to the Big 12 Preseason Team.
Utah has featured a dominant offense so far in the early going, ranking fourth in the country with 16.11 kills per set and triggered individually by Loryn Helgasen, whose 4.78 kills per set are No. 17 nationally. Katelynn Field has been strong at the net, averaging 2.0 blocks per set, No. 7 in the country, and Sierra Grizzle has averaged 5.0 digs per set, No. 19 in Division I.
Head Coach Alyssa D'Errico is in her first year at Utah, which is also her first head coaching job. She had served as the associate head coach at Utah for the previous three seasons before being elevated.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Pitt currently has the nation's longest home win streak, having posted 53 consecutive wins dating back to Sept. 14, 2023. That total ranks 11th in NCAA Division I history.
In fact, Pitt has won 55 straight inside the Pittsburgh city limits, having won two "neutral site" matches at PPG Paints Arena in 2025.
Pitt is one of only eight programs in NCAA Division I history to have a home win streak of at least 53 matches.
Among that 53-match win streak is 36 matches inside Fitzgerald Field House and 17 inside the Petersen Events Center.
Pitt will hope to add a third home venue to that win streak when the program plays its first official match inside their new home Victory Heights on Sept. 11.
Petersen Events Center has been good to Pitt and the Panthers have won 23 straight matches in the facility dating back to 2019.
And it's not like Pitt is playing cupcakes inside Petersen Events Center. All 23 of those matches were either NCAA Tournament contests (14 of the matches) or against ranked opponents during the regular season (the other nine). Including all of those matches, Pitt has beaten 15 ranked teams during the 23-match win streak and three that were ranked inside the top four in the country.
In fact, Pitt has lost just 14 sets during that 23-match win streak and has been pushed to five sets just four times (2022 vs. #13 Georgia Tech, 2023 vs. #4 Louisville, 2024 vs. #4 Louisville, 2024 vs. #14 Oregon).
Pitt has not lost in the Petersen Events Center since Dec. 7, 2019 when it fell to Cincinnati in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

MAKE IT A DOUBLE

Olivia Babcock was named the ACC's Offensive Player of the Week for the second consecutive week to open the 2026 season and Izzy Starck was named the ACC's Setter of the Week for the second straight week as well.
Babcock has now been named ACC Offensive Player of the Week 11 times in her career. She also earned ACC Freshman of the Week honors six times in 2023, giving her 17 weekly league honors over the past four years.

HARD TO BEAT

Pitt has the best record in NCAA Division I women's volleyball since the start of the 2021 season with a mark of 157-20 (.887). That includes a record of 51-6 (.895) in regular season non-conference contests.
In non-conference play, Pitt has gone undefeated twice in the last five years, doing so in both 2021 (11-0) and 2024 (10-0). The Panthers are 4-0 thus far in 2026.
Pitt is 19-5 against ranked opponents in non-conference play since the start of 2021 and 32-1 against unranked teams, only losing a four-set match in 2022 to a criminally unranked Towson squad that went 29-2 on the season.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE

Junior setter Izzy Starck is off to a fast start in her first season at Pitt. She has had double-doubles in four straight matches to start the season.
Starck has reached double-double status in assists and digs in each match, posting at least 10 of both. She had a season-best 13 digs in the win over Kentucky and a season-best 45 assists against Kansas.
Starck has had just one other stretch of four straight double-doubles in her career. Those came in the final four matches of Penn State's national championship 2024 season.

D-FENCE

Head Coach Dan Fisher has made the claim that this Pitt team could be the best defensive team of his coaching career. So far, the Panthers are proving him right.
Pitt has outdug all four of its opponents in 2026, averaging 7.0 per match more than their opponents.
Up front, Pitt has also outblocked 3-of-4 opponents and ranks in the top 20 nationally in blocks per set. The Panthers are averaging 4.3 more blocks per set than opponents this year.
All of that adds up to a .140 attack percentage for opponents this year, ranking Pitt among the top 50 in the country despite playing three top 15 teams through the first four matches.

BLOCK PARTY

Five Pitt players have at least 10 blocks through the first four matches of the season, but none of them have been quite as much of a terror as freshman Maaike Heilig.
Heilig has 25 blocks (1.79 per set) through the first four matches of her career and has recorded at least five blocks in each of those contests. The 1.79 blocks per set rank 22nd nationally and third among all freshmen.
She had a career-high eight blocks in her debut against Kentucky, posted five in back-to-back wins over Xavier and Kansas, and then had seven in the sweep of Wisconsin.
Along with the defensive numbers, she is hitting .400 on the season and has flashed an ability to serve with two aces.